JCL Activities (Latin Club)

New to the Junior Classical League? Want to do more than just JCL competitions? Then
you have come to the right place. Below you will find ideas for activities and games for
your Latin/JCL club.

Do you have ideas that should be added to this page? Please e-mail them to
Andrew Rist, TCA web manager [arist (at) sasaustin (dot) org]

Starting a JCL Club

If you do not have a JCL club yet, you do need to do a few things. Sponsors need
to be members of the Texas Classical Association, the American Classical League, and also the National Junior Classsical League in order to
be a member of the Texas State Junior Classical
League. Lucky for you, each has membership information at their websites. Some of the
membership forms are in the form of PDF files and will thus require you to download an
Adobe Acrobat reader (from the Adobe site) in order to download and print the forms.

Games

Why not start a serious club meeting with a bit of fun? Try playing games the first
half of a meeting and then taking care of business for the second half. If there is no
business, then just have fun! Maybe have a full competition with a prize (such
as pencils with Latin on them, candy, whatever--look for good prizes from the NACCP
Resource Center, L&L Enterprizes, Lumina, ACL's TMRC, and the children's section in
your local bookstore).

Knucklebones

The idea (of knucklebones or astragali) was to throw the knucklebones in the
air and catch as many of them as possible on the back of your hand. The number you caught
was your score. (Step into the Roman Empire by Philip Steele, p 48)

To make knucklebones: find self-hardening clay, paints, and a paintbrush.

1. Mold the clay into 10 knucklebone shapes like these. Let the clay dry.
2. Paint the shapes gray and yellow, then flick brown paint on them, so that they look
like bones. Let them dry.
3. Now you are ready to play. Give 5 knucklebones to each player. Take turns throwing the
knucklebones up in the air and catching them on the back of your hand. Whoever catches the
most is the winner.

(Ancient Rome: Come and Discover My World by Peter Chrisp, p 6)

Navia aut Capita/Heads or Tails

Just a simple coin toss game as today, except Roman coins often had ships on the back.
Try finding some coin reproductions (I believe Lumina carries these) and let the kids use
those to play. You can also use a coin toss (with teams properly calling Navia aut Capita)
for choosing which team goes first when playing another game.

Par Impars/Odd or Even

As played by the imperial family, the game consisted only of a monotonous series of
bets on the odd or even number of pebbles, nuts, or knucklebones hidden in the other
player's hand. (from Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Jerome Carcopino, p 251). Of
course, there's no reason to need betting! Keep score and declare a winner. Just
make sure everyone is using the Latin parimpars.

Micatio/Micare

There was another variety of the game derived from "Odd or Even" in
which the element of mere chance was somewhat corrected, limited by the quickness of sight
and speed of the player, a calculation of probabilities, and a certain psychological
flair. This was micatio--the still popular morra of southern Italy
today. The two players "each raise the fingers of the right hand, varying each
time the number raised and the number kept down and call aloud the total of the fingers
raised by both," until one or the other wins the round by guessing right. . . . From
Cicero through the times of Petronius and Frontinus down to Saint Augustine, Latin
tradition unanimously used to indicate a man of integrity by the phrase, "You could
play micatio with him in the dark." (from Daily Life in Ancient
Rome by Jerome Carcopino, pp 251-252)

Marbles or Nuts

A number of bas-reliefs show children apparently playing "nuts," the ancient
equivalent of our marbles. This would explain the Saturnalian custom of presenting
grown-ups with bags of nuts for the festival. (from Daily Life in Ancient Rome by
Jerome Carcopino, p 252)

Roman children played with ... marbles (made of glass or pottery). Marbles were either
rolled together or onto marked game-boards. They were also thrown into pottery vases.
Nuts, such as hazelnuts and walnuts, were often used like marbles. (Step into the
Roman Empire by Philip Steele, p 48)

Roman Ball Games

Ball-playing was popular
among the Romans, and they often spent their morning exercises playing games on the fields
(palaestra) or ball-courts (sphaerista). The Romans enjoyed a variety of ball games,
including Handball (Expulsim Ludere), Trigon, Soccer, Field Hockey, Harpasta, Phaininda,
Episkyros, and certainly Catch and other games that children might invent, like Dodge
Ball. We have theorized an additional game called Roman Ball to fill the gaps.

Carnival Ideas

Sponge Toss

We have a Roman figure on a board with its head cut out. Teachers and
administrators stand behind it and we charge $1 for three wet sponges to chuck at their
heads.--Penny Cipolone

Delphic Oracle

We also have had a fortune teller booth (the Delphic Oracle) but you have to be careful
with this depending on your community sensibilities. --Penny Cipolone

Quackus Maximus

Last year we sponsored a duck pond for the little kids to win prizes. We didn't
make a cent (in fact it cost us) but it generated a lot of good will. Name of booth?
What else "Quackus Maximus - The Aqua Ducks." --Penny Cipolone

Photo Opportunity

Make two figures on a board with their heads cut off--one Mars and one Venus. Take
Polaroid photos and charge a $1 or whatever might turn a little profit to be photographed
as a God or Goddess!--Ginny

Fundraisers

Community Service

Christmas Bears for Children

My JCL chapter makes 8 inch high bears from scraps, stuffs them with panty hose or
fiberfill, and delivers them to children in the hospital at Christmas. We get permission
from the Children's Ward, find out how many children are there, and go up and down the
halls singing Christmas carols in Latin and distributing the bears. Last year one mother
told us that was the only time her little boy stopped crying all day. After the delivery
we go to someone's house for chocolate and snacks. Anyone who wants the bear pattern can
send me a stamped, self addressed envelope and I'll be glad to send it.--Rose Williams

Book Collections

Before I moved away from Houston two weeks ago, my kiddoes always collected coloring
books, puzzle books, activity books, crayons, colored pencil sets, watercolors, etc. for
the children at Texas Children's Hospital. (everything was new -- nothing was used)
They began collecting these items in early November, and we delivered the items to the
hospital the weekend before Christmas. The last year that my Latin club did this,
they set as their goal 1400 items, and they wound up with well over 3000! An
"item" consisted of a coloring book with more than twenty pages, a complete set
of crayolas, etc. Merchants were always thrilled to contribute, but we had to catch
them early in the holiday season while they had not yet met their quotas for give-aways.
It took three cars to deliver 3000+ items! We had thought that 3000 items
would last the hospital for a long time, but TCH told us that it would last less than a
month.--Janet Burns

1. Make six 8" round cakes using your favorite mix or buy cakes
from a bakery.

2. Buy two or three dollars worth of dry ice from an ice cream store
the day you will need it. Keep the dry ice in freezer. Be sure to handle
the dry ice with gloves or tongs just to be safe. If your ice cream store
doesn't have dry ice just look in your local Yellow Pages telephone
directory under "Dry Ice."

3. Now use your juice glass or cookie cutter and cut out a hole in the
center or the top two layers of cake. This hole will form a well in the
center of the cake and hide the special effect.

4. Now construct the Volcano cake, round pyramid style, on a cake
platter or large dish. Trim each layer into successively smaller rounds
and stack and frost them into mountain shape using the last two layers
with the holes as its top.

5. With a small piece of aluminum foil, line the well in the center of
the volcano cake. Use the juice glass as a mold and form foil around the
glass.

6. Now frost the cake, smoothing out the small step-like ledges. Use
chocolate frosting for the whole cake first. Then use green frosting as
highlights around the mountain to resemble vegetation.

7. When you are ready to serve the cake, make the "lava."
Separate the cleaned egg and discard the yolk. Put the egg white in a
small mixing bowl with 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar and 2-3 drops red food
coloring. Beat until the egg white starts to thicken. You don't want stiff
peaks to form, just a thick, foamy texture.

8. Now place two or three small chunks of the dry ice into the
foil-lined well of the cake and pour in the red egg mixture. Nothing much
will happen yet. Now fill your juice glass with hot tap water and take the
Volcano Cake and water to the table where your guests are.

When you are ready to produce the Special Effect, simply pour one or
two ounces of the hot water into the egg and dry ice mixture and your
realistic Volcano Cake will erupt large quantities or orange, foamy
"lava" and white "smoke" for several minutes while you
serve your delighted guests pieces of genuine Erupting Volcano Cake.

Alternate Foam Generating Technique: If you can't find dry ice in your
area, you can still produce the foaming "Lava" effect. There
will be no smoke, but you will have plenty of foamy lava. You will need a
small, short juice glass or a shot glass that will fit snugly in the
center of the Volcano Cake (a glass 3" tall and 1 1/2" in
diameter would be perfect). You will also need one small box of Jell-o,
one small bottle lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda. Make
Jell-o according to package directions. Let cool 15 minutes. When Jell-o
is still (not hot), fill juice glass 1/2 full with the warm Jell-o. Pour
in enough lemon juice so that the glass is almost full, or about 1/2"
from the top. Place glass down into hole in the cake so lip of glass is
flush with top of cake. You are now ready to produce the effect. When
ready, put 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda into the glass and briefly
stir (1-2 seconds). Jell-o foam will immediately pour out the top of the
glass and flow down the sides of the cake.

Halloween

Come as your favorite Mythological monster.

During Halloween week we hold a pumpkin decorating contest for Latin, Spanish and French
Club members. The pumpkin submitted by each club must portray some aspect of the
culture...some the Latin Club has done include: Arachne (as a spider), the Temple of the
Vestal Virgins, La Bocca Della Verita (The Mouth of Truth) complete with hand caught in
mouth! --Linda Chester

Saturnalia

Many clubs usually have a big feast and dress up in Roman garb. What does your school
do?

At Saturnalia we have a traditional party but beforehand, the club members draw names
in a lottery. They then attempt to create a salt dough sigillaria of the person whose name
has been drawn (making every effort to render the person and his/her interests accurately.
They also take this person as their Secret Saturnalian Pal for a week, leaving a series of
small nonsensical presents on the person's desk, taking care not to reveal their identity
until the day of the after school party when each is presented with a sigillaria from the
Secret Saturnalian Pal. We also have a candle grab bag during the party and
play games (Achilles' Heel involves fastening a balloon around your ankle and attempting
to break the other contestant's balloons without having yours broken. Club officers
monitor this event carefully to avoid mosh-like behavior. The students compete to
make the candle they place in the grab bag as interesting as possible; they do set a price
limit for these as well as the SSP gifts. --Linda Chester

Ides of March

from Ginny Blasi

Sites related to Julius Caesar and the Ides of March:

An internet search about Julius Caesar with questions and links
provided is found at:

Rome's Birthday

Our fledgeling Latin Club set up a cake and a poster in the
commons area which proclaimed felix dies natalis Roma! and as the first intrepid
student asked about the cake we replied "habesne Latinam?"Got
Latin? Do yo know any Latin or have anything on you in Latin? A few (too few) knew e
pluribus unum. Several remembered carpe diem! We pointed out to some about the
back of the dollar bill having 3 Latin phrases. Some Latin students had taught their
non-Latin enrolled friends to say salve or nomen mihi est ___. A real treat
was to have science students come up with names from periodic chart (close enough) and
choir students to come up and sing gloria in excelsis deo! Needless to say the cake
flew! We plan to do this again. Latin students further celebrated by hosting an after
school dinner for the custodians . . . nostri custodes. They were thrilled to be
remembered and students got to use the ovens in Home Economics to cook pans of Lasagna and
garlic bread. They made posters, and had purple and gold crepe decorations. We even made
them business cards which read "A member of the Clean Team" with the school
address and phone on it. We went home tired but feeling great! euge! A new group which
appreciates Latin and the Latin Club.Tish Dilworth

Projects

There are numerous neat children's books out now that provide projects or
have what I consider good inspiration for models or other projects. Many of the
ideas below are from these books. Look for these books in your local children's
bookstore.

Mural

One teacher in Texas covers one whole wall of her classroom in paper and then, with the
help of students, draws in some sort of a view of the forum, which they then paint. It's a
big project but anyone who visits the class is stunned by the effect.

Mosaics

Depending upon the age of your students and your resources, you can make real mosaics
using proper materials or follow instructions for making mosaics that are in children's books, such
as what is listed below here.

1. Draw a fish or other animal. Then cut a piece of stiff cardboard, large enough to
cover the whole design.
2. Draw your design on a piece of paper and chose the colors you would like to use.
3. Roll out the clay with the rolling pin until it is about 1/8 inch thick.
4. Use a pair of scissors to mark the clay into small squares.
5. Cut the squares to make small tiles, or tesserae. Let them dry.
6. Paint them in your chosen colors.
7. To create a more textured effect, you could dip a sponge in the paint and dab it gently
onto the tiles. Or you could flick paint onto them, using a stiff brush.
8. Cover the stiff cardboard with a layer of tile adhesive. Press the tiles into the
adhesive, following your paper design. Begin with the center tiles and work outward until
the design is complete.
9. Let the mosaic dry. You could varnish it later.

(from Make It Work! The Roman Empire by Peter Chrisp, pp 24-25)

Writing Tablet

1. For both frames cut a flat piece of wood 7 x 5 1/2 inches, four
thick strips of wood: two measuring 7 x 1/3 inches, and two measuring 5 1/2 x 1/3 inches.
Glue together (sort of like a picture frame with a back).
2. Paint the frames a rich, woody color. With the bradawl, make two holes in one side of
each frame. Thread string through the holes and tie the frames together.
3. Roll out two flat pieces of plasticine and glue inside each fram as shown.
4. To make a stylus, ask an adult to help you sharpen the end of a twig. Use it
to write on the tablet. Smooth over the plasticine to use again.

(adapted from Make It Work! The Roman Empire by
Peter Chrisp, pp 33)

Models

Every classroom needs good models and sometimes you can't wait for student inspiration.
Sometimes a little teamwork, not for a grade but because something is just neat to do, can
go a long way. Such books as Make It Work! The Roman Empire, Step into the
Roman Empire, and Ancient Rome: Come and Discover My World have great models
of a domus, a kitchen, a Roman town, streets, insulae, bathhouses,
merchant ships, Roman forts, aquaducts, and more. Showing such great models to students
can inspire them to design their own.